Emmet Stagg (Kildare North, Labour)

Today we are dealing with an extraordinarily mean-spirited measure that will save the Exchequer little if any money and will put at risk the health of a sizeable number of old age pensioners. It will take from the over 70s the security and comfort of knowing that if they fell into bad health their savings would not be used up in providing the required care, that their houses would not need to be sold to pay medical bills, that they could go to their doctors or clinic as required and that the cost of medicines would not be a recurring nightmare. That is what the medical card meant to them.

This measure will force all those over 70 to return to the hated means testing, involving prying into their private affairs that they find so repugnant. I know the HSE and regardless of the provisions of the Bill I know what it will do in this regard. The measure will remove the right to a medical card from some 25,000 senior citizens. The medical card for the over 70s was an acknowledgement of the service to society provided by senior citizens. It was they who struggled through the hard times and paid more than their fair share in high taxes. I cannot believe the Government is now proposing to withdraw this long-established right. It is not only the rights to a medical card for the over 70s but also the much longer established right of the over 80s to that entitlement. Some of these people who have had medical cards for ten years are now in their 90s and will have it withdrawn.

The Bill is the legislative measure designed to deprive old age pensioners of their right to a medical card. The Government, composed of Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Independents, is proposing that a majority of the House vote either electronically or by walking through the lobbies to remove the right of those over 70 to a free comprehensive medical service and replace it with a means-tested system for all, which will exclude 25,000 pensioners from health care at a time when they most need it. The Government has a majority of six in this House of 166. For this measure to be stopped in its tracks and rejected all that is needed is for four Green, Independent or Fianna Fáil Deputies to vote for the pensioners. If they were to state their intentions clearly there would be no vote at all. The Government would be forced to withdraw this mean-spirited measure that targets the old when they are infirm and sick. The question is whether any of the four Members on the other side of the House have the guts, the bottle, the courage or the gumption to stand up for the old among us.

Government backbenchers should be aware that old people are not only hurt by their actions but they are also very angry. They are angry that backbenchers targeted them by supporting this measure which attempted to deprive all old people of medical cards and the accompanying services. These people are angry that the Government withdrew the original proposal only in part in the face of their huge demonstration. Many of the old age pensioners who are loyal and longstanding supporters of Fianna Fáil are angry and shocked at the party's betrayal of them. This was best demonstrated when Government Members gave this measure and other cuts a standing ovation in the Dáil.

I say to the Government backbenchers that if they cannot find it in their hearts to reject this measure and support senior citizens, then perhaps they will do so to save their own skins and their seats. Let them not forget that many of the people who are affected and angry are lying in the long grass waiting for them. Deputy Joe Behan, a heart and soul Fianna Fáil man, found the courage to do so because it was the right thing to do. He now holds what is probably the most secure seat in this House.

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